PRACTICING STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY | PART TWObegins to mount when the other actions on your lists are not
reviewed and renegotiated by you or between you and everyone
else. The constant sacrifices of not doing the work you have
defined on your lists can be tolerated only if you know what you're
not doing. That requires regular processing of your in-basket
(defining your work) and consistent review of complete lists of all
your predetermined work.
If choosing to do work that just showed up instead of doing
work you predefined is a conscious choice, based on your best call,
that's playing the game the best way you can. Most people, how-
ever, have major improvements to make in how they clarify, man-
age, and renegotiate their total inventory of projects and actions. If
you let yourself get caught up in the urgencies of the moment,
without feeling comfortable about what you're not dealing with,
the result is frustration and anxiety. Too often the stress and
lowered effectiveness are blamed on the "surprises." If you know
what you're doing, and what you're not doing, surprises are just
another opportunity to be creative and excel.
In addition, when the in-basket and the action lists get
ignored for too long, random things lying in them tend to surface
as emergencies later on, adding more ad hoc work-as-it-shows-up
to fuel the fire.
Many people use the inevitablity of an almost infinite stream
of immediately evident things to do as a way to avoid the respon-
sibilities of defining their work and managing their total inven-
tory. It's easy to get seduced into not-quite-so-critical stuff that is
right at hand, especially if your in-basket and your personal orga-
nization are out of control. Too often "managing by wandering
around" is an excuse for getting away from amorphous piles of
stuff.
This is where the need for knowledge-work athletics really
shows up. Most people did not grow up in a world where defining
the edges of work and managing huge numbers of open loops were
required. But when you've developed the skill and, habits of pro-
cessing input rapidly into a rigorously defined system, it becomes